I finally broke down and kicked the breaker on for the furnace. Partly it has been my own stubbornness to keep the windows open at night and partly @stryeyz complaining of the cold in the house. 39F mornings have had the house down to below 60F in the mornings and it isn't warming up by the afternoon despite it being 80F outside.
It was a super small batch or orders I delivered to the co-op, just 5 pounds of beans and 2 pounds of squash, but this is the way of the end of season.
Back home I pulled some more of the marigold seeds and spread them to dry on cardboard. I am going to spread them everywhere around the farm next spring.
It was also time to get the seeds out of the squash which have been sitting for a few weeks now. I hauled four out to the spool table by the firepit and hacked them apart.
Each gave me a number of seeds commensurate to their size. The huge Chiffon gave me the most with each size smaller giving me fewer seeds. The biggest of the four was the Latino and it gave me a lot of seeds. I weighed the Chiffon a bit later in the day and found the one squash had given me over 3 ounces of seeds.
It took a good bit of time for each of the varieties as I had to scoop the seeds out then squeeze them out of the squash innards into the bowl then to the strainer. I ran the seeds under warm water in the sink and mooshed them about a bunch to remove as much of the slimy squash as possible. They then got spread out on paper towels on cardboard and then set on a table next to my glass studio to dry. I also grabbed the Sunburst scalloped squash and pulled the seeds from it.
Mid afternoon after I picked the boys up from school I drug the box of cucumbers into the house and got the next batch going in the freeze dryer. I ran it the same as the last batch with 2 trays of plain, 2 trays of salted, and one tray of Red Robin seasoning. One of the salted trays got the tray of pesto pucks that @stryeyz had made over the weekend.
As I was looking around the garden judging sizes and trying to gauge next steps I saw this fly on one of the marigolds. It flew off to another and as I tried to get a shot it flew off but landed again in the same spot so I managed to get a shot of it.
These marigolds are taking forever to bloom whereas some of the others have been blooming for months. The earlier ones are going to get spread all over the farm and if I can manage to get seeds from these later ones I will probably go spread them out by the road to see if they will give us a bit of a barrier in the late season.
There is just something about fall that has me feeling like I just want to sleep. It could be that I have worked myself to the bone over this year too. Whatever the cause I was out early and in bed.
Today will be more time in the gardens, opening the last of my seed squash, more organizing, I am trying to build a schedule for the Fall/Winter times when I get time to dedicate to practicing, I have bunches to pick in the garden, and this evening is scouts.
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This is the longest I have ever gone without building a fire to banish the chill in the morning, or as my dad likes to call it, a little gnat smoke. Not that I am complaining, because holy wow have I ever got an extended harvest, but I just know in my bones that a switch is going to flick regarding our weather lol!
And nice marigold haul! I love having them everywhere!
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We are looking at possible frost next week as of now so the late summer may have its head on the block. I really need to excavate our fireplace from the storage area is has been the past couple years. I have 2 trees to cut up that will feed it nicely this winter.
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Marigolds are some of the easiest flowers to grow. I love the scent, but my husband hated it. I had marigold seed last for 12 years and still be perfectly viable, growing some of the stash each year throughout.